The final hurdle every senior class has to overcome at St. George’s is Global Challenge. The second component of the senior class project, Global Challenge entails students being randomly divided into groups, and then selecting a global issue for their group to solve. Every group is assigned a guide to help them through the process and chooses their own expert to educate them about their topic.

In order for a senior to graduate with distinction, they must perform above and beyond what is required on both Global Challenge and Senior Independent Study.

The school tradition, now in its tenth year, began with the Collierville campus’s first graduating class. It was modeled after the book by Jean Francois Rischard High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them, which is also credited as the inspiration behind the program Challenge 20/20.

At Global Challenge’s inception, the groups would choose a global issue from the book and then create a PechaKucha presentation about it.

Mr. Bill Taylor, current school President and then Head of the Collierville campus, said that he intended for the project to be group-oriented, as Senior Independent Study would be individual. Originally, Senior Independent Study took place first trimester, and Global Challenge took place during the second.

Over the years, it has changed into a more solution-centric program. The process has been remodeled around the concept of design thinking, a problem-solving method that stems from engineering and centers around best fulfilling the consumer’s needs.

Mrs. Rhonda Charnes-Martin, Chair of the History, Social Science, and Religion Department, currently oversees the project. She says that Global Challenge helps students to learn about themselves, as it forces participants to step outside of their comfort zone. She said, “I think that being forced to solve something that doesn’t seem very solvable has merit.”

Mr. Taylor appeared similarly enthusiastic, saying, “The skills that are being exercised in Global Challenge are identical to what many of [the students] will face in the workplace.” A few of those skills are problem solving, teamwork, creativity, and public speaking.

Alumna Dagny Vaughn ‘14 said of her experience with the project, “I was with people I’d never had to work with before […], so just learning to deal with different personalities on a very long project was something that Global Challenge [taught] me.” Vaughn said that those skills were especially valuable going into college.

As this will be Mrs. Charnes’s last year at St. George’s, that leaves the position of Global Challenge director open. Mr. Taylor said, “I don’t know who [will lead Global Challenge] yet, but […] it’s an important piece of the senior experience, so we’re going to make sure it’s assigned to somebody who feels very strongly about it, as Mrs. Charnes does.”